A coder's digest that is trying to be quirky, flawed and an enormous success.

Importance of Teaching Children to Code

by Zubair Ahmed on October 14, 2017

A few years ago (decades ahem!), the capability of communication through a language was considered a sign of good quality education. But that was back then, nowadays, the world around us is changing and evolving at a rate never seen before. Today we are surrounded by technology that makes our lives easier.

As the world progresses at this rate, one has to master to communicate with machines and technology in order to stay competitive. What is this communication media? Yes, you guessed it right, it’s Code.

The future most definitely is going to be more and more automated since our reliance on technology will only increase. The children today should not only learn to passively use this technology but also understand and control it!

In the early days, the writing was the ability to create change. Today, writing is not enough, it is crucial to leverage the digital realm. A very good example of this is, “Internet’s Own Boy”, Aaron Swartz, who started programming at a very young age and eventually was able to involved in the development of the web feed format RSS, the Markdown publishing format, Creative Commons, involved in the web framework web.py which is based on Python and Reddit to name a few. He was also an Internet hacktivist focused on civic awareness and activism.

You might also consider Bitcoin and Blockchain technology to be a leap for programming. Bitcoin has become a worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system, which was invited by an unknown programmer(s) under the name Satoshi Nakamoto. The bitcoin network at the moment is more powerful than 500 supercomputers put together. This along with the concept of Blockchain technology is a subtle revolution in my opinion.

The children today should not only learn to passively use this technology but also understand and control it!

When in the digital realm, everyone has ideas, but it only a selected few can make it happen. The ability to code separates those who merely have an idea from those who can make their ideas a reality.

Programming empowers the kids. It helps them express themselves in really cool ways, such as getting a computer to solve complicated problems, ideas made accessible to millions, turning creativity into interactive reality, building and controlling robots etc. If you want your child to be thinker and innovator who can bring ideas to life, encourage him to learn to program. Yet again, I cannot emphasis this enough, programming gives children confidence and empowers them.

Now you might ask, when is the right time to teach your child to code, is it too hard? Programming doesn’t have to be hard to learn, if a child takes a real-world object and models that object and manipulates the object in a certain way and immediately sees the results they wanted, this gives immediate feedback to the child. This type of instant positive reinforcement is an incredibly powerful educational tool. Programming languages are like any other real-world language. It has to be taught (as early the better), it has to be practiced and then tested out. Programming gives children the ability to create technologies that impact those around them.

Believe me, when I say this, a child with just a computer with the right attitude and approach has the skill that could change the world.